Humidity. It’s an ugly word during the summer because it makes hot days worse. Humidity doesn’t make the temperature warmer; it makes it harder for the human body to release heat through perspiration, which traps extra heat in the body and makes the temperature feel higher. When relative humidity rises above 60%, the difference in what the temperature feels like can be as much as 8° to 10° higher.
But you have an air conditioning system in your house to cool you off so you won’t have to sweat it out when the temperature rises. Sometimes, the AC may be all you need to enjoy comfort. But there are other times when the humidity level puts the air conditioner to the test—that extra 10° difference means you have to run the AC longer to cool down, and muggy air will still feel unpleasant. Can you do anything about this?